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Seven Ways To Fail At Starting An Online Business

Jan 18th 2012 at 9:40 AM

Have you had the same experience I’ve had trying to figure out how to generate income from home? That experience might include things like having no idea where to start, being inundated with hundreds of "how to make a zillion dollars next month while sitting at your computer in your underwear drinking coffee," and actually spending a lot of money for these useless programs and e-books and still being confused and getting no where fast.

There is so much information and so many people selling information about how to make money it's really difficult to sort out what works and what doesn't. I've done a ton of research, subscribed to probably over a hundred email "how to make money online" newsletters and received mostly a ot of generalizations and motivational encouragement to purchase more programs, books and articles from the information gurus that market their wares on and off the internet.

Now don't get me wrong. There is some good information and good programs out there. The problem is, you can spend a tremendous amount of time and money trying to find them. If you finally do it's probably because you were lucky enough to trip across one while you were searching for a way out of the day to day drudgery of your job, or lack of one, or you spent the requesite amount of time and money necessary to finally find something that you could figure out how to make work for you.

So, let's go over the specific ways you can go about failing at the "work from home" business.

Believe that just wanting to be financially independent and needing more money will be enough to keep you motivated while you get your online business up and running.

Believe the online marketers out there that try to sell you on the idea that you can generate a living from an online business without spending any money (except for buying their system or program) and very little time

Believe there is actually a "get rich quick" scheme or program out there and spend countless hours chasing it. The internet marketers that are actually making a full-time income on the internet have spent a lot of time, energy and money laying the ground work. Once they have developed a system and set it up correctly they may be able to actually sit around in their underwear and drink coffee while their system makes money on autopilot for them. You can rest assurred however, that there was a great deal of work involved getting their business to that point.

Do an internet search for "work at home" or some other similar term and read every website or landing page that shows up on the first page of the search. This will allow you to spend a lot of time learning that most of the ad copy on these pages is written to keep you interested and hook you into the idea of making a lot of money with little effort. Most of them are quite long and make interesting reading but don't tell you anything except how to sign up for the program they are selling or give you an option to sign up for some free information that gives you a better idea of their program and then sends you to another page or website that offers you a "great deal" on a paid program

Then, sign up for all of the free stuff and spend hours reading all of it. You will definitely learn some things about internet marketing but unless you are very lucky still won't have a clue as to how to turn any of that information into money

Be sure and buy several hundred dollars of the information and programs they are offering so you can find out for yourself that none of what they are telling you to do is as easy as they want you to believe, and is more difficult to implement than they say it is, because they don't share the extra information and "secrets" that they actually use to make this information, programs and systems work for them.

Get involved in a bunch of different programs to be sure you have something to fall back on when one or more doesn't work. This way you won't have to focus your time and energy learning everything you need to know about developing a system of your own that works for you.

What you've just read is the way the majority of people go about trying to get an online business started from home. You can find a lot of useful information about how to get a home business on the internet going, but you'll find it in bits and pieces. You're left by yourself to figure out how to put it together and make it work to generate income.

I don't have any problem at all with someone selling information if it actually does what it says it will do. Take a look at the disclaimers associated with the internet home business information and programs advertised on the internet. Some of them are actually longer than the actual landing page or program information page they’re associated with.

So how do you actually go about compiling the information you need and putting it into a system that will allow you to be one of the lucky people that is able to "sit around in their underwear and drink coffee" while the money making system they've developed keeps their bank account full?

Let's answer that question by taking another look at the "seven ways to fail at starting an online business:

Wanting to be financially independent or needing the money isn't enough. You need to understand that starting a business requires planning and a willingness to do the ground work necessary to learn what works and doesn't work in the type of business you are trying to start. This can take time so patience is necessary. Talk to other people that work from home even if the type of business they are doing from home isn't exactly what you want to be doing. Read about how the internet works. Get familiar with social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace because you will find them very useful as you develop your business. Write down specific goals like how much time you want to spend each day working on your business and how much money you are willing to invest in it.

Take an honest look at your budget. You’ll need to spend some money to get started. It doesn't need to be a lot but unless you can find someone that is available and willing to give you the information you need you’ll probably need to pay for some books, or other information sources that explain how to accomplish certain tasks related to using the internet as an income source. At some point you'll also have some expenses related to developing a blog or website and setting up an email program. Customer tracking and follow-up are an extremely important part of any online home business.

There are no get rich quick schemes out there that work (except for illegal ones that make the originators a lot of money). You might as well get used to the fact that you'll have to "put in the time before you see a dime." Anyone that develops a business from scratch has put in a lot of time, effort and in many instances money to get it to the point where it seems to run itself. There's no shortage of people that will sell you a "get rich quick" program. That's how they make their money. They're able to keep making it because there's also no shortage of people looking for an easy way to make a buck and who are willing to pay for the promise. Don't get hooked into the get rich quick myth. Spend your money on information that will help you build a foundation of success.

You do need to do some research. When you do, make sure it's specific. Searching for terms like "work from home" "quit my job" etc. will only result in a lot of general information designed to get you to buy books and programs that are intended to keep you in the purchase loop and constantly sell you more and more information that never actually gets you anywhere. Look for specific information that has to do with the area you are interested in. You will need to learn about social networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc., email marketing, website development, blogs, pay per click advertising, article directories and other areas specifically pertaining to internet commerce. Do some research into internet business coaching programs. They aren't cheap but there are some out there that have been developed by successfull internet marketers and can be a way to get access to information and systems that have been proven to work.

There is a lot of free information offered by online marketers and so called Gurus. My experience is that it's intended to give you an incentive to sign up for newsletters or future emails that contain offers for paid programs and sytems offered by the marketers or their joint venture partners. There's nothing wrong with signing up for these offers as long as you know what you're getting into. You will find your e-mail inbox inundated with email offers. If you don't mind sorting through them then go ahead and sign up. The experience will give you some good insight into the internet marketing business. I've signed up for a lot of them and have learned to take the tid-bits of useful information as they come along and integrate them into my business when appropriate. Just don't expect to take all of this free info and turn it into a money making business any time soon, if ever.

Pick and choose what information and programs you spend your money on. As the old saying goes "any thing that sounds too good to be true probably is" definitely holds true here. One of the problems with this is, when you’re just getting started you may not know what you need to know, so how do you decide what to spend your money on? Just use some common sense. If you do spend money on a program or piece of information, don't buy more until you completely understand and have put it to the test. You have to be patient. One of the biggest mistakes you can make when starting a work from home business is to get into a hurry and try something new before you've finished what you’re currently working on.

Take it a step at a time. If you decide you want to build a website about a certain subject learn how to do it and work on it until you’re done before you start something else. It's really easy to get distracted by every new money making program out there, especially if the one you’re working on doesn't seem to be working. Overloading yourself with too many projects is an easy way to kill your enthusiasm. Develop a plan then put one foot in front of the other. You may well find yourself sitting in front of your computer drinking coffee in your underwear much sooner than you think.

This article is based on my personal experience over the last several years trying to figure out how to be that guy sitting in his underwear drinking coffee while his business puts money into his bank account. I'm on my way there. I don't expect it to happen overnight. I have, however found a program and system that is beginnning to work for me. It took a lot of research and a leap of faith but so far it's the most comprehensive and organized way of putting everything together that I've come accross. http://wordpress-or-sbi.sitesell.com/freedom2183.html

I've heard it said, "we can have everything we want if we will just help others get what they want". I hope this article will help you in some way achieve the dreams that led you to read it.

After Thoughts

I’ve come across some good tools that I use pretty much daily to make my internet business a little easier to manage. Below are some links to them so you can see if they’ll help you.